Medical image processing apparatus

Abstract

A display screen of an image display section is divided into an image display area for displaying an image and an operation panel display area, an image (base image) imaged by an X-ray CT apparatus, for example, is displayed on the upper part (base area) of the image display area, an image (match image) imaged by a MRI apparatus is displayed in the middle part (match area), and an operation panel, which is composed of an operation panel display area 2 of the image display section and respective operation keys for aligning the images, is displayed thereon. When the operation panel is operated and fit points are provided to the images or a region of interest (ROI) is set on the base image, a CPU aligns and composes the respective images based on the fit points or ROI, and displays the fusion image on the lower part (fusion area) of the image display area. As a result, both the images can be compared with each other visually.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A medical image processing apparatus comprising image capturing means for capturing a plurality of medical images obtained by imaging an object to be examined;   aligning means for aligning the medical images captured by said image capturing means;   fusion image forming means for forming a fusion image by superimposing the medical images aligned by said aligning means on each other;   display means for displaying the medical images thereon; and   display control means for controlling the display of the respective medical images captured by said image capturing means and the fusion image of the respective medical images formed by said fusion image forming means on said display means.   
     
     
       2. The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: ROI setting means for setting desired regions of the respective medical images displayed on said display means or a desired region of one of the medical images as a region of interest, wherein said aligning means aligns the respective medical images with each other so that image information in the region of interest set by said ROI setting means coincides with each other for plural of said respective medical images.     
     
     
       3. The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: fit point setting means for setting fit points to be reference points for the alignment on the respective medical images displayed on said display means, wherein said aligning means aligns the respective medical images with each other by superimposing the respective medical images so that the fit points set by said fit point setting means coincide with each other.     
     
     
       4. The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein: said display control means detects point coordinates of the fit points set by said fit point setting means so as to display the coordinates on said display means, the apparatus further comprising: point coordinate changing means for changing the point coordinates of the fit points displayed on said display means by inputting desired point coordinates, wherein when the point coordinates of the fit points are changed by said point coordinate changing means, said aligning means aligns the medical images based on the fit points whose point coordinates have been changed.       
     
     
       5. The medical imago processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said image capturing means captures a plurality of coaxial tomograms imaged by different imaging methods. 
     
     
       6. The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising: three-dimensional image forming means for forming three-dimensional pseudo images of the respective imaging methods based on said plurality of two-dimensional coaxial tomograms captured by said image capturing means, wherein said aligning means aligns the three-dimensional images formed by said three-dimensional image forming means, and said fusion image forming means superimposes the three-dimensional images aligned by said aligning means on each other so as to form fusion images.     
     
     
       7. The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising: ROI setting means for setting desired regions of the respective medical images displayed on said display means or a desired region of one of the medical images as a region of interest, wherein said aligning means aligns the medical images so that image information in the region(s) of interest set by said ROI setting means coincides with each other.     
     
     
       8. The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising: fit point setting means for setting fit points to be reference points for the alignment on the respective medical images displayed on said display means, wherein said aligning means superimposes the respective medical images so that the fit points set by said fit point setting means coincide with each other so as to align the medical images with each other.     
     
     
       9. The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein: said display control means detects point coordinates of the fit points set by said fit point setting means so as to display the coordinates on said display means, the apparatus further comprising: point coordinate changing means for changing the point coordinates of the fit points displayed on said display means by inputting desired point coordinates, wherein when the point coordinates of the fit points are changed by said point coordinate changing means, said aligning means aligns the respective medical images based on the fit points whose point coordinates have been changed.       
     
     
       10. The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising display changing means for changing a display position and zoom rate when the respective medical images displayed on said display means are two-dimensional images, or changing a display position, display direction and zoom rate when the respective medical images displayed on said display means are three-dimensional images. 
     
     
       11. The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when display of the fusion image and the respective medical images captured by sale image capturing means on said display means is controlled, said display control means controls simultaneous display of a plurality of images viewed from plural directions regarding each of the fusion image and the respective medical images. 
     
     
       12. A medical image processing apparatus comprising: image capturing means for capturing a plurality of medical images obtained by imaging an object to be examined;   aligning means for aligning the medical images captured by said image capturing means;   fusion image forming means for forming a fusion image by superimposing the medical images aligned by said aligning means on each other;   display means for displaying the medical images thereon; and   display control means for controlling the display of the fusion image of the respective medical images formed by said fusion image forming means on said display means, wherein when display of the fusion image on said display means is controlled, said display control means controls simultaneous display of a plurality of images viewed from plural directions.